2007A day after Wales were knocked out, Ireland followed them out of the Rugby World Cup, losing 30-15 to Argentina at the Parc des Princes in Paris. Tries from Brian O'Driscoll and Geordan Murphy gave them some hope but Argentina, hugely impressive once again, refused to loosen their stranglehold on the game.

The feared Pumas pack led their charge into the quarter-finals - as Pool D winners they faced Scotland in Paris - with first-half tries from Lucas Borges and Horacio Agulla doing the main damage on the scoreboard.

2007 In the wake of their Rugby World Cup defeat by Fiji the previous afternoon, the WRU announced that head coach Gareth Jenkins had been sacked.

Jenkins paid the price for a wretched campaign that was ended by a 38-34 defeat to the Fijians, having only narrowly escaped the ignominy of a Six Nations wooden spoon earlier in the year.

1996The stark realities of the professionalisation of the game were brought home at Cardiff's AGM where an operating surplus of £320,000 was turned into a loss of £500,000 after a year of paying players. The biggest factor was a wage bill approaching £750,000, and Gareth Davies, the club's chief executive, described the loss as "the entrance fee for professionalism".

2001Wasps crumbled to a 19-25 defeat at Stade Francais in the Heineken Cup thanks almost entirely to the boot of Diego Dominguez who kicked seven kicks from eight attempts; Kenny Logan of Wasps managed three from nine.

1905 In the fifth match of their tour, the All Black 'Originals' defeated Leicester 28-0. By that stage, the tourists had amassed 197 points on tour, conceding only a drop goal.

2001Ireland coach Warren Gatland was kicked out of Romania for not having a visa despite no other members of an official delegation from the Irish Union having any problems. Gatland was held at the airport in Bucharest for ten hours and then forced to take a return flight to Dublin, and to add insult to injury was charged £900 for the unscheduled homeward leg.

"We are constantly being assured by their rugby officials that this kind of thing no longer happens in Romania," a spokesman said. "We did not take their word for it and were travelling to assess the situation - then they wouldn't let our coach in."

1939 The informal war-time season opened. A crowd eager to see the rugby stars in action was rewarded with an exciting game between Rosslyn Park and Harlequins at Old Deer Park. Prince Alex Obolensky scored one of the Rosslyn Park tries in their 11-5 victory.

1967On their first official visit to North America an international-class England XV defeated Canada 29-0 at Vancouver. Wing Rod Webb scored four tries in the second-half.